BOSTON, June 17—The Bos‐ton & Maine Railroad today petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission for permission to discontinue all passenger service in and out of Boston.

The lines involved, which carry about 13,000 passengers a day, are all from points within Massachusetts.

Passenger train service now in operation on the railroad's Connecticut River line between Springfield and Greenfield, Mass., and between Springfield and White River Junction, Vt., would not be affected.

The railroad petition said that nothing less than complete discontinuance of the Boston passenger service “would be adequate to avert the direct threat to the Boston & Maine's solvency that is posed by a continuation of financial losses resulting from passenger service operations.”

“Elimination of these losses is of the greatest urgency if the Boston & Maine is to maintain its ability to provide adequate freight service and hence to remain a productive factor in New England's economy.”

Today's petition to the I.C.C. is similar to a petition made by the railroad to the Massachusets Department of Public Utilities some months ago.

The latest petition, which in effect bypasses the state's reg-1 ulatory body, was made under the provisions of a new Federal law that permits carriers to appeal directly to the I.C.C. unless the state involved has acted on the carrier's petition within a 120-day period.

The railroad's petition to the state was filed last Jan. 6. Hearings were held on April 9 and 13 and on five dates in May. The hearings are now in adjournment until July 15.

In its petition to the I.C.C., the railroad referred to its experience during an experiment in subsidization of commuter service conducted under con tract with the Mass Transpor tation Commission, a state body, throughout 1963 and in the first three months of this year.

Under terms of the experiment, the railroad offered ad- ditional train service and lower fares to see if more passengers would be attracted.

In the 12 months of 1963, while the experiment was underway, the railroad incurred a passenger deficit of $4.3 million, of which $2.2 million was met by grant funds from the state commission.

Summarizing its experience in. the experiment, the railroad said the program had “demonstrated that while the offering of additional train service and incentive fares served to attract I some additional patronage to rail service, the added cost of providing this service more than offset any additional revenues produced."

Supporting its conclusion, the railroad quoted reports made by the staff of the Mass Trasportation Commission. One report said: “It is obvious that the Boston & Maine cannot be reasonably expected to con- tinue bearing the burden of al very substantial net cash loss arising from a continuation ofl its Massachusetts commuter, passenger service.”

The state commission's re‐port continued: “All three railroads serving Massachusetts are far more important to the continued economic vitality of the Commonwealth because of their freight services than theirs commuter passenger service.”

The Boston & Maine's petition to the I.C.C. asserted that “total relief from its confisca‐tory passenger service deficit is basic to the Boston & Maine's ability to achieve full finan‐cial recovery.”

The petition states that: “any order requiring the Boston & Maine to continue to bear the burden of passenger service; losses would constitute a tak‐ing of its property for public use without just compensa-1 tion.”

Most of the 13,000 commuters who would be affected by abandonment of the service re-' side within 30 miles of Boston in the area from the city north to the New Hampshire border. Without train service, most, would be forced to commute by automobile.

The railroad's petition was filed just a few hours before the Massachusetts Legislature! passed a bill authorizing the expenditure of $225 million to provide the state with a mass! transportation program.

The bill provides for a centrally coordinated program designed to alleviate the Boston area's growing transportation problems. The bill's provisions include one authorizing the spending of $5 million to sub‐sidize railroad commuter serv‐ice over the next three years.

Spokesmen for the railroad were not immediately available for comment on the bill. Gov. Endicott Peabody said he planned to sign the bill into law on Thursday.

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A version of this archives appears in print on June 18, 1964, on Page 47 of the New York edition with the headline: BOSTON & MAINE SEEKING I.C.C. AID; Permission Is Requested to Cut Passenger Service. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe